Ion sources are an important part of the mass spectrometer. Mass spectrometers can only produce results of what is input into the instrument. If the ion source is very inefficient, which means that very few sample ions are produced, the mass spectrometer will also be inefficient. Equally, if the ion source produces too many ions from solvent or other impurities in the instrument noise produced within the instrument may reduce the potential performance.
Ion sources produce greater numbers of sample ions at higher temperatures. However, they will also produce more noise ions at higher temperatures too. These high temperatures also result in the access to source enclosures needing to be restricted for compliance with regulatory requirements. To date, this has been achieved by the use of additional instrument panels.
It would therefore be desirable to produce an ion source that can be regulated to be at the optimum temperature within the ion source, but for the external face of the source to be at room or at least at a safe temperature to touch.